Friends Forever
by Starberry
Summary: Forevermore, Link and Saria will be friends...


Friends Forever  
  
Leaves were falling from the trees again in the forest. Every limb and branch was alive with vibrant, flaming reds and oranges and yellows, making the woods have a cozy, bundled feeling. The Kokiri children were happily settling down to rest for winter. Bundled up in their wooded homes were these children who never grow old.  
  
A yellow leaf danced on the breeze that fluttered Saria's hair as she sat, listening to the songs of the earth in the solemn Forest Temple. The leaf landed on her hand, which was stretched out above the shimmering surface of the stream.  
  
Her eyelashes fluttered rapidly as she came back to reality. The leaf sat there, content on the bridge of her hand. Lightly, it tickled her youthful, soft skin. Her large, glistening eyes drifted across the Temple's landscape, taking in the total beauty that it held so preciously as it's own. She twined a piece of hair around her finger as she plucked grass from the bank.  
  
She recalled the times when she was deathly afraid of everything in this place, even before Phantom Ganon showed up and Ganondorf's evil reigned. She used to not even be able to think of the place with out shivering, which her best friend, Link, found quiet strange.  
  
Saria blinked heavily a few times, trying to avoid the tears that pounded at the back of her eyes.  
  
"Link…"  
  
Her voice was lost to the wind that danced through her soft green hair and made the yellow leaf flutter into the pool. Gentle ripples flowed from the spot, shifting the reflection of a young girl with a tear- stained face. Saria watched the leaf float and bob on the surface, trying to ignore the war that was going on inside of her heart. The total distress to her soul that was weighted upon her. Or maybe she had weighed herself with it…  
  
She shifted uncomfortably, looking calmly at her rippling reflection. Her hair had grown longer now and was to the center of her back. But, her face, that of a young girl, never changed, although she felt she had lived for what seemed like ions. Trapped. Her emotions were that of a young lady, but her appearance just read "child".  
  
In utter disgust, she splattered the reflection with her thin hand, the spray lifting and sopping through the edges of her skirt. Saria was sick of being young, wild and free. She wished to grow, like Link had done…  
  
Again his face crossed her mind. A shiver went through out her small body. Tears filled her child-like, round eyes.  
  
"I am only a kid," she whispered, now crouching over the stream, gazing at the stranger's face that was her own, the face that held her from the outside world… from him…  
  
She stirred the water gently with one out- stretched finger, watching the ripples play along the surface, slowly growing larger until departing on the bank. She would never be like those ripples. She'd never mature. At least, not her outer self…  
  
"A child!" she cried, remembering the last time she had ever seen Link…  
  
~  
  
It had been raining in the Forest Temple when Link entered. Pools of water lay scattered about the grassy turf, causing reflections to be cast into the sky. The sky itself was a smitten blue.  
  
Saria had been sitting in her usual spot, her ocarina pressed softly to her mouth. She was so lost in the music… the notes had flowed through her like fingers on a harp.  
  
"Saria?" he had called.  
  
Her eyes slowly opened to look down at the puddle before her. She saw his reflection displayed there in the pool; he had become a young man. The pain that stabbed her heart was unyielding.  
  
She shook off her pains for the time being, and glanced up at him, her ocarina lowering from her lips.  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"I have returned from my journeys, Saria. Termina is safe," he said, touching his sword. "I must find the Princess Zelda and inform her of this."  
  
"Yes, you should."  
  
It crushed Saria to know that Link would never know her true feelings for him. He would never give them back. Only to Zelda would his heart ever turn.   
  
"Saria?"  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"Do you remember… that day you gave me the fairy ocarina?" Link asked, his face suggesting that he had forgotten. Saria gave him a look of concern.  
  
"Yes, of course. Don't you?"  
  
"I'm sorry, Saria. I don't. It's been so long…" he murmured. "I don't even have the instrument anymore."  
  
Saria set her ocarina in her lap. She sat there for a few moments, baffled at this statement he had made. He had forgotten their friendship. Tears had leaked out of the corners of her eyes as she just sat there, gawking at him.  
  
"Saria…"  
  
~  
  
The water rippled as Saria traced her reflection in the water. How could he have forgotten that? Our friendship?  
  
Anger boiled in her veins, stealing through her heart as tears burned in her eyes. She smacked the water in frustration.  
  
"Saria!"  
  
The girl jumped at the shock of hearing her own name. Someone was calling her. Reluctantly, she left the safety of her Temple, her palace where no one could harm her. She walked out into the sunlight.  
  
"Cruel world," she whispered, sliding down the large tree that held up the entrance to the Temple.  
  
She turned around to see him standing there, his golden hair gently shining in the rays of sunlight, his eyes glistening like fire. Saria calmly took her usual seat on the stump that sat in front of the Temple's entrance.  
  
"What?"  
  
Her voice was filled with such sarcasm and anger, that she could hardly believe it. Link looked a bit shocked, but stayed calm.  
  
"I wanted to come… to invite you to the wedding."  
  
Saria raised one eyebrow. Wedding? She looked at Link again. He wasn't in his Kokirian outfit.  
  
"Hylian clothes."  
  
"Yes, I'm marrying Zelda," he said, touching a piece of silver on his ring finger that was catching the light cast down around them. Saria fought back tears and the rages of anger that filled her thoughts. Her face was like stone.  
  
"I won't go, Link," she said, kicking the stump in a carefree way. She tried to rack her mind for an obvious reason.  
  
"Please, Saria…"  
  
Her eyes struck him like ice pellets.  
  
"The Kokiri are starting their winter naps soon. I should be here," Saria stated, kicking the stump harder and harder. She wondered if Link noticed.  
  
"Your mad at me, for forgetting."  
  
"Yes, I am," she said with vigor. So much passion was in her voice, that tears started to flow. There was no stopping now. She had to tell it all.  
  
"Are you…"  
  
"Link, don't you realize how much you mean to me? To all of us?" she cried, letting her tears stream down her cheeks like the waterfalls of the Zoras. Link looked shocked.  
  
"I love you, Link," she whispered, clasping her hands to her heart. He looked on in bewilderment.  
  
The silence between them for a moment was deafening. Saria sat on the stump, crying and whimpering softly, and Link stood on the Temple's disc, looking concerned and confused. Finally, Saria decided to break the silence.  
  
"Just go, Link. Just go," she cried, taking out her ocarina and clutching it in her hands, running her small fingers over the holes, feeling the dome of the small instrument. Link began backing away, walking slowly to the sharply carved staircase on the soft, lush grass. He stopped at the top and turned back around.  
  
"I remember," he whispered just loud enough for her to hear. Her eyes red from crying, she watched as he took his ocarina from his pocket, the one she had given him so long ago.  
  
Without words, he gently set the delicate instrument at Saria's feet. She whimpered softly. He leaned over and softly, like a breeze on a cool day, placed his lips on hers.  
  
The moment was very brief, but Saria knew it was one of the many things she'd remember for the rest of her life. Watching Link leave for the first time, being trapped by Phantom Ganon, learning she was a Sage, giving Link the ocarina… so he could come back one last time… and kiss her good-bye.  
  
Her eyes opened slowly, to see Link walking away. Her hand raised slowly to her mouth, remembering the feeling…   
  
"Link!" she called out.  
  
He stopped and turned around. Lightly she tossed him the ocarina with a gentle smile.  
  
He smiled too and walked down the stairs. She listened as his footsteps faded away.  
  
"You'll always be my best friend, Saria. Forever," she heard him say as he turned the corner of the labyrinth.  
  
A smile spread across her face as she looked up into the sky to watch the sun set in the radiant sky behind the fiery foliage of the forest.  
  
{^.^} Starberry 


End file.
